


Dear Nephew

by ohmyfae



Series: Dads of the Year [13]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ardyn unintentionally kidnaps the chosen king, Gen, Implied/background eventual Lunoct, Noctis unintentionally king-naps the Accursed, uncle Ardyn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-18 14:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18251633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyfae/pseuds/ohmyfae
Summary: Ardyn is discovered trapped in Angelgard, held in chains, but his rescuer is none other than a young Prince Noctis, thrown overboard during a storm at sea.Fill for the kinkmeme!





	1. Chapter 1

Bees drifted in the high flowers behind the ruins north of Insomnia, where a cool breeze blew in from the sea. Ardyn Lucis Caelum, stripped down to his ragged, road-worn undershirt and simple robes, tilted his head back to listen as the wind whistled through the grass, and drummed his fingers on his knee. At his side, Aera Fleuret lay her head on his shoulder, eyes closed.

"We'll have seven," she said.

Ardyn opened his eyes. Aera still seemed to be asleep, her headband slipping over her ears, hand limp on Ardyn's arm. "What's that, love?"

"Seven," Aera said. She shifted, blinking slow. "Two is trouble, four is unlucky, and eight's too much. Seven will do."

Ardyn smiled and ran his hand through her hair. "Say the word and I'll find them for you," he said. "Whatever they are."

"We'll name the first one Calla," Aera said. "After your mother."

Ardyn froze. "Name?"

"Our children, Ardyn," Aera said. She patted his arm as Ardyn stared into the distance, his mind hurriedly patching itself together as Aera went on. "We'll have to wait for your brother to calm down, of course, but my sister has a house in Tenebrae--"

"Seven?" Ardyn croaked.

"Yes, I told you," Aera said. She sat up, dusting off her gown. "We can name one of them Somnus to appease your brother--"

"Absolutely not," Ardyn said. "His ego doesn't need the boost."

"It's a peace offering," Aera said.

"I can't believe you'd use our hypothetical children that way." Ardyn tried for an admonishing tone, but Aera just frowned at him, and his voice trailed off. "How about a middle name? Spare the child some torment?"

"If you insist." Aera lifted his arm, and Ardyn held her shoulders as she scooted closer, her hair tickling his stubbled jaw. "How about... Hela Somnus Caelum?" Ardyn winced. "Juno? Apollo? Noctis?"

"Ah, there we go," Ardyn said. "Noctis Somnus Caelum. It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy--He'll be the only one to go to bed on time." Aera snorted indelicately, and Ardyn turned her round to face him. "But really, love. Seven?"

"You'll come around to it," Aera said, and pulled Ardyn down for a kiss, soft and lingering. "I promise."

The world around them shifted. Light drained from the wildflowers, color pooled and slithered away, leaving behind the cold, blue-grey darkness of a moonlit night. Ardyn strained to open his eyes, and pain shot through his palms, his side, in the tight, corded muscle of his back. He hissed a curse, and the memory faded, leaving him with nothing but the dark, the cold, sharp pain of metal in his flesh, and the echoing scream of a child.

A child?

Ardyn jerked in his chains, fingers curling around the hooks binding him there, and squinted into the darkness. There, just past the crack in the cave wall, a pool of rainwater was spreading on the floor. Some of it had been dragged further, a path trailing into the safety of the cave, ending in a shivering lump of drenched cotton and shaggy black hair that blinked up at Ardyn with a wide, terrified gaze.

"Is he dead?" The voice was high, breathy with panic, and a small hand slipped on the stone. The child fell, and when he pulled himself up again, his legs dragged with him, heavy and unmoving. 

"No," Ardyn said, and the boy screamed again. "Gods above."

"Sorry!" The boy pulled himself a few more inches across the floor. "I... How did you... Are you... Can you get out?"

"Not... to my knowledge," Ardyn gasped. The pain was sharper, now, without a vision to dull it, and his bones ached, racking him with a shudder that trailed down his spine. "How did you come here, boy?"

"There was an accident," the boy said. "My dad... his boat. I think it crashed. There was this huge wave, and I couldn't swim, and I got thrown off and... and woke up on the island. But the waves kept coming, so I thought..." He looked up at Ardyn and swallowed. "Does it hurt?"

"Yes," Ardyn said. The boy squinted at the chains holding him up. 

"I think I can break them," he said. Ardyn let out a short, hoarse laugh, which made his stomach contract in pain. "Wait a sec."

The boy crawled across the floor, arms straining. Ardyn opened his mouth to tell him to be careful--There was no telling what he could have been doing to his legs if he couldn't feel them--but the boy had already wrapped his hands around the chain hooked to Ardyn's foot, lips twisted in a grim line.

"Okay," he said. "Breathe." 

Light sparked between the boy's fingers. Ardyn only had a moment of alarm before lightning--true lightning, with the violet haze of magic--arched from his hands, striking the chains welded to the walls. They snapped free in a series of resounding cracks, and Ardyn cried out as he fell to the floor, chain slithering about him like a nest of snakes.

"I'm sorry!" the boy twisted to reach him, face pale. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Ardyn choked back another terrible laugh. He worked the hook in his right hand free, wincing as his flesh regenerated around the wound, then saw to his left. The boy tugged at the chain around his foot with small, grasping hands, and Ardyn slowly wriggled the spikes out of his back and sides. 

"Who _did_ this?" the boy whispered. He wiped at his round cheeks, which were damp with tears and patchy with spots of pink. Ardyn reached up to brush his cheek with a thumb, and the boy's breath hitched in a sob.

"A monster," Ardyn said. "But he's long gone, now. Thank you, my boy. I never thought I'd stand on my own two feet again."

Far from mollifying the child as Ardyn expected, this seemed to only make the boy's condition worse. He burst into tears, wrapping his spindly arms around Ardyn's waist, and sobbed into Ardyn's chest. Ardyn stared down at him for a moment, entirely at a loss, and lay a hand on his hair.

"What's your name, little one?" he asked. The boy sniffed heavily. 

"Noctis," he said. Ardyn sat still, his hand frozen on the boy's head. "What's yours?"

"Ardyn," he said, in a soft, distant voice. He glanced at the boy's legs, which were twisted under him. "Perhaps I should return the favor... Did you hurt your legs in the accident?"

"What?" Noctis wiped his nose on his sleeve. "No. It was a daemon. I'm going to Tenebrae to get it fixed."

"A daemon?" Ardyn said. A curious thing to say. Perhaps that was a code for some new form of transport. "Well, I can at least attempt to heal the hurt, somewhat." He lay his hand on the boy's side and called on his magic, seeking out the root of his injury. It lay in the base of his spine, a shadow of the Scourge, weakening his body's attempt to recover--Easy enough to fix. Ardyn drew it into himself, gasping at the dull sting of the Scourge as it entered his blood, and pulled away, letting the boy stumble onto his side.

"Ow," Noctis said. He blinked, then reached down to poke his thigh. "I can feel my legs," he said. "How did you--I can feel my _legs!_ "

"The world is full of wonders," Ardyn murmured, and grunted as Noctis flung himself into his arms a second time, smearing snot and tears down his front. "Ah," he said, and gently, carefully, heaved the boy into his lap. 

"My feelings exactly," he said, as Noctis sobbed into his collarbone. He stood, carrying Noctis with him, and turned to the gap in the cave wall. "But I'm done with this place, aren't you? Let's go out and see what's become of the world in my absence."

 

\---

 

"Two sodas, please."

Noctis--or Noct, as he insisted Ardyn call him, with all the firm resolve of the very young--held himself up by his arms on the counter of the Mother of Pearl. His hair was only just drying out from their ride on a ramshackle fishing boat, which had given up the ghost just as they tied it to the dock, and his clothes were still damp and dripping, but the money he plopped on the counter seemed real enough. He pushed it into an even line and beamed at the woman behind the counter.

"And fish sandwiches," he said. "Big ones. What kind of soda do you like, anyways?" he asked Ardyn. 

"I'm partial to wine," Ardyn admitted. Noct made a face, and the woman at the counter smiled. "But I'll try soda, I suppose."

"Cherry's the best," Noct said. "Two cherries, please. And fries. Do you have fries? And can I use your phone?"

"Cute kid you have there," the woman at the counter said, when Noct was happily perched on a bar stool, chattering away on the black device he called a phone. She looked Ardyn up and down, lingering on his ragged trousers and bare chest. "You two get caught up in that storm?"

"Unfortunately," Ardyn said. He leaned on the counter, away from the stinging light of the sun. "Do you happen to have a tailor nearby?"

"A tailor?" The woman snorted. "What, like for rich people? Oh," she said, when Ardyn's expression didn't change. "Not that... I mean, I'm not _against_ rich people--"

"I'm about as poor as they come, these days," Ardyn said. "I just thought I might need to wear something other than... this."

"I have a spare shirt," the woman said. "If you don't tell anyone I gave it to you."

Ardyn smiled wryly. "My lips are sealed."

Noct was done with the phone by the time Ardyn had wrestled himself into a tight maroon shirt, and pointed the two of them to a table covered by a large striped cloth. "Good news," he said, as Ardyn set him down on the bench. "Dad's okay! He's in Altissia, so he told me to stay put until he comes back. He was really upset when I told him you were all chained up," Noct added. "Dad's great. You'll like him. He taught me how to take care of a kitten once, so I bet you'll get along really well. You're both magic!"

"Yes," Ardyn said, struggling to catch one train of Noct's thoughts before it went rattling off the rails into another. "As are you, it seems. Where did you learn that trick with the lightning?"

"Dad," Noct said. "I can make fire, too! Do you wanna see?"

Ardyn glanced round at the decidedly flammable cushions, wooden chairs, and cloth ceiling, and patted Noct's hand. "Perhaps not yet."

Noct sighed. 

The boy was a Caelum, that much was certain. Which branch of the family was a mystery--Ardyn still had some cousins knocking about, back in the day, and Noct did have Aunt Uriel's chin. The thought of Somnus having children was laughable, but it could be _possible,_ if Somnus kept his mouth shut long enough for his intended not to realize what kind of man he was. He watched Noct scribble with colored wax sticks on a paper mat, and quietly prayed he was of Aunt Uriel's line.

Their food arrived in glossy red baskets, smelling of oil and salt, and Noct immediately reached for the potatoes. Ardyn closed his eyes and bowed his head in a quiet prayer, and when he looked up again, Noct was sitting upright, hands clasped in his lap.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't know you were religious."

"We all owe the gods a great deal," Ardyn said, staring suspiciously at his glass of bright red liquid. "But I'm not here to evangelize."

"We used to pray at home," Noct said. "But Dad stopped when I got hurt."

Ah. "That can happen, sometimes," Ardyn said. "It's hard to imagine that the gods would allow someone you love to be in pain."

Noct looked down at his hands. "You were in pain," he said, in a small voice. "But you're still praying?"

"I live in hope," Ardyn said, and risked a smile. Noct smiled back. "Now, tell me more about you. You rescued a kitten?"

"Oh, yeah!" Noct shoved some potato sticks in his mouth, and started off on a long, rambling tale about a kitten in a box. Ardyn nodded along, made an attempt to drink the red liquid, failed, and watched as Noct began go grow increasingly animated, hands flailing in the air. 

"And I said I'm not _gonna_ be a prince," he said, and slapped his hands on the table. He leaned towards Ardyn, voice lowered in a conspiratorial whisper. "I'm gonna be a _veterinarian._ "

A prince? Ardyn raised a brow. Then he could well have been a descendant of Somnus. Gods above, that meant there was a person out there, at some point, who found Somnus bearable. "An admirable goal," Ardyn said, and Noct grinned. 

"What did you want to be when you grew up?" Noct asked. 

"A naturalist," Ardyn said. Noct looked at him blankly. "Ah. A... scientist."

"Oh."

"I ended up becoming something of a doctor, though," Ardyn said.

"Which is how you fixed my legs!" Noct said. "I mean, sort of."

Which was the trouble, in fact. Ardyn _should_ have healed Noct entirely, but it seemed that after so many years of neglect, his magic was weaker than he remembered. He pushed his basket aside--Noct was already picking potatoes out of it, in any case--and ran his hand through his messy bangs. 

"When did you say your father would be here?" he asked. 

"I dunno," Noct said. "He just said stay put." He looked out over the deck, which was glowing gold with the light of the sunset, and drummed his hands on the table. "You don't think going to the fishing dock counts as staying put?" he asked. "Dad said we'd go last time, but we never did."

Ardyn resisted the pull of Noct's wide, beseeching blue eyes for all of three seconds before folding like a matchstick house in a hurricane. "Very well," he said, and stood. Noct whooped and held up his arms, and Ardyn picked him up, walking them both out of the Mother of Pearl and into the blazing sun. 

They never did make it to the fishing dock. They certainly started there, but then Noct saw another, far superior dock further along the Quay, out of sight of the Mother of Pearl. _Then_ he'd seen a cat, and Ardyn couldn't precisely blame him for wanting to be friends, which left them both standing several miles from Galdin, at a hotel that certainly wasn't anywhere near where Noct's father expected him to be, trying on hats for sale in the back of a horrifying contraption known as a _truck._

Which meant that by the time King Regis' Kingsglaive charged into the Mother of Pearl, ruining several tourists' dinners and terrifying the waitstaff, Ardyn Lucis Caelum was tucking his who knew how many times great nephew into bed, working out the remote of what Noct called a TV, and finally opening a half-decent bottle of wine.


	2. Chapter 2

"You truly thought you would be king?" 

Ardyn thrashed, tethered in the limitless dark of all nightmares, as his brother strode through the high fields of Lucis. Somnus' hands trailed in the wheat, which crumbled under his touch, collapsing into a path of rot through a golden sea. Aera lay at Ardyn's feet, breathing raggedly into the dust, and Ardyn braced himself to watch the final blow strike home.

Then, for the first time in centuries, the nightmare flickered. The wheat at the far end of the field started whipping about, rustling in a straight line towards him, and Ardyn fell to the earth as a small blue and white fox burst from the field.

It squeaked, and a black square Ardyn recognized dropped at his feet.

"Oh, a phone," Ardyn said. He picked it up, and words appeared on the tablet, blocky and blurred.

**Carbuncle:**  
_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_  
THERE IS SO MUCH STARSCOURGE HERE  
(ಠ_ಠ)  


Ardyn peered down at the phone, then turned to the fox. "Are you... Carbuncle?"

The fox squeaked, and words appeared on the phone again. Ardyn mumbled them out loud, trying to translate the unusual handwriting.

_YES  
HOW DID YOU GET LIKE THIS_

"Do you not believe in punctuation?" Ardyn asked.

_HOW_

"I'm afraid it's a long story," Ardyn said. "Who... exactly, are you?"

The fox looked around, fur bristling.

_There's so much going on here. Okay. Okay. I can do this. We can do this. I'm Carbuncle, and I'm on loan from Prince Noctis, who... Thinks you need help. And you do._

As Carbuncle spoke--or wrote, Ardyn supposed--the field slowly disappeared, Somnus and Aera fading away into darkness. Ardyn sat, and Carbuncle climbed into his lap, tail bushed, ears flat against the back of his skull. 

"I believe I've heard of creatures like you," Ardyn said. "Minor gods. Dream walkers, yes?"

 _Sort of,_ Carbuncle wrote. _I was helping get rid of the Scourge in Noct. He's my boy,_ the fox added, and Ardyn smiled slightly, scratching behind his ears. _He saw you were having nightmares, and... Oh, boy. Okay. I can do this._

"Can you?" Ardyn asked.

_Sure! In about a thousand years._

"Well," Ardyn said, petting the poor creature's back. "I believe I may have the time."

 

Ardyn woke at last in the bright hours of late morning, as rays of light from the window slid across the narrow bed. Noctis was asleep, drooling on his pillow, and a small stone figurine had been pressed into Ardyn's hand--A miniature fox. Ardyn slipped the fox in his pocket and brushed the bangs out of Noctis' eyes. Noct stirred in his sleep, hugging the pillow close, and Ardyn sat down, hands dangling between his knees.

In all the visions his mind had conjured, those long years in the dark, Ardyn had never considered dreaming himself a son. 

"I can only hope your father appreciates what he has in you," he said to Noct, who rolled onto his back with a snorting, grumbling snore. His own father had been distant, gone too soon, leaving nothing more than a title for one of his sons to fill. If he'd been a commoner, perhaps Ardyn and Somnus would have worked together... But no. No, Ardyn had been stubborn, refusing all attempts at help, and Somnus had no one to rely on but his generals and soldiers, people who only widened the gap between them. It was their own fault, in the end. 

Why hadn't he remembered that before? 

Ardyn sighed and made his way to the bathroom. At least the future had indoor plumbing. The clothes they'd managed to buy with Noct's limitless pocket money were functional, but hardly tailored to fit his frame, and Ardyn emerged from the bathroom dressed like a maypole at a fair. Nothing matched. There were at least four unnecessary belts, his sleeves were far too long, and the shirt was ruffled to the point of distraction. Ardyn opened the blinds to test the strength of the sun on his new outfit, and Noct groaned, slapping his hands over his eyes.

"You're far too young to sleep in so late," Ardyn said.

"You sound like my godfather," Noct said. His voice lowered to a gruff mumble. "A good king does his chores, Noctis. A good king doesn't warp in the hallway, Noctis. Mnuh-mnuh-mnuh."

"All sage advice," Ardyn said. "Do you need help with the facilities?"

Noct went silent. 

"Noct?" Ardyn turned, and found Noct had covered his face with both hands, hunching in the covers. "Oh. That's perfectly normal," he said. "You can't exactly control--"

"I'm not a _baby,_ " Noct said, miserably.

"No one is implying that you are. I'll run a bath, shall I?"

At least Noctis had some spare clothes in his armiger, but they were all pajamas, with bright, colorful prints of wide-eyed chocobos and turtles in headbands. Ardyn helped him into the bath and stripped the bedding, then bundled up his soiled bedclothes and set them outside for the laundress. When he came back, the bath was a mess of bubbles, and Noct was splashing water onto the floor.

"Dad usually lets me bring a book in the bath," Noct said, as Ardyn sat down on the other side of the open door for privacy's sake. 

"Really? I haven't read a book in years," Ardyn said to himself.

"What? We gotta get you some!" Noct cried. "There's a book fair at my school. I bet I can sneak you in if you want--there's this series about kids who can turn into animals, and there are these aliens..."

Ardyn listened to a play-by-play of the first six books in Noct's favorite series, then covered his eyes with one hand so he could lift Noct out of the bath. Noct insisted on dressing himself, so Ardyn cleaned up the mess in the bathroom while Noct wrestled with his pajamas. It was pleasant, almost, to go back to the familiar routine of caretaking. It came to him easily, his body recalling the steps before his mind caught up, and Ardyn wondered idly, as he mopped up the floor with a towel, how far the modern world had come in that regard. It seemed the best doctors were in a place called Tenebrae, in any case.

"What _is_ Tenebrae?" Ardyn asked, when Noct gave the all clear and he could come back into the room. Noct looked up from the TV and shrugged.

"It's where Luna and Ravus live."

"And Luna and Ravus are?"

"Prince and Princess of Tenebrae," Noct said. He narrowed his eyes. "Tenebrae's a country. How long were you..."

"Quite some time," Ardyn said.

"Huh. Maybe it's the magic," Noct said. "Tenebrae's like, full of trees. Dad says the empire's in charge, but the..." He concentrated, forming the words slowly. "Nox... Fleu-ret family's still in the manor."

Ardyn sat heavily on his bed. "Fleuret? The house of the Oracle?"

"Yeah." Noct turned off the TV. "Are you okay?"

Ardyn covered his face with a hand. Aera had no sisters, just one brother barely out of the nursery. The Fleuret line should have ended with her... unless they found another, and elevated the line? He was certain her wound had been fatal, there was no way--Or perhaps her brother... 

"Ardyn?" Noct asked.

"I'm fine," Ardyn said. "It was only a shock. I knew a Fleuret, in my own time."

"Really? Cool. What's their name?"

"Aera," Ardyn said. "We were." He cleared his throat. "Engaged."

Noct leaned forward, slapping his hands on his knees. "Like married, engaged?" His eyes shone. "We gotta get you to Tenebrae! What if they're still around? What if you're..." His mouth hung open. "You're prob'ly like, a hundred years late to the wedding!"

"Noctis, I sincerely doubt that--"

"Why not? Maybe people just live longer where you're from," Noct said. "We gotta tell my dad! Oh, man." His face fell, and he ran his hands through his hair. "Dad's gonna be so mad that I'm not in Galdin."

"It's alright," Ardyn said. "I'm sure we'll find him soon enough."

Noct was too busy planning Ardyn's hypothetical marriage to mind being seen in his turtle and chocobo pajamas, so he let Ardyn carry him out the door and onto the patio. The clothes were still there--Ah, well, perhaps inns didn't have the same customs after all--and Ardyn gingerly dropped them into his armiger to be cleaned at a later time. He peered out at the dusty road leading into the desert, and let Noct press a black hat over his head, shielding him from the sun.

"Now," he said, hefting Noct in his arms. "How on Eos do we get back to Galdin?"

Noct frowned, biting his cheek, and pointed to the left, far from the direction Ardyn could have sworn they'd come. Ardyn craned his neck the other way, and only just caught the glimmer of light out of the corner of his eye as a man in a black uniform dropped out of the air, a silver mask fixed over his eyes. He made a sharp gesture, and three other masked figures dropped at his side, forming a loose half circle around Ardyn and the boy.

"Uncle Drautos?" Noct said, shading his eyes with both hands. He grinned. "Hey, it's Uncle Drautos!"

The man in black looked at Ardyn, mouth twisted under his mask, and raised a hand to his ear.

"Adagium sighted," he said, and Ardyn drew back, holding Noct close. "Permission to engage."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Titus apparently wasn't recruited as a traitor until six years before the start of the game, so he's still loyal here!  
> Edit: This is according to a timeline that has since been changed, but you know what? The timeline is broken anyways, let's just go with it.


	3. Chapter 3

"Excuse me," Ardyn said, as magic built in the street like the charge of the air before a lightning strike. "Who is responsible for this child?"

The soldiers in the street halted, rocking on their heels, as Ardyn stepped forward with Noct's arms wrapped tight around his neck. The man Noct called Uncle Drautos made a frantic gesture with his hand, and two of the soldiers flanking them fell back under Ardyn's furious glare.

"How on earth do you lose a prince?" Ardyn asked. His shadow flickered in the corner of his eye, deeper than it had a right to be, but he kept his gaze locked on Drautos. "None of you thought to check Angelgard? Not one? The poor boy dragged himself into a cave, in the _rain,_ only to come across, well. Me. Do you know what lasting effects trauma can have on a developing brain?"

Drautos' lips parted, one hand still pressed to his ear. 

"And as far as you know, the boy's still paralyzed, but I see no mobility apparatus here."

"As far as we know?" Drautos whispered.

"Oh, yeah!" Noct said. "Ardyn healed me! I can feel my legs now. I can even wiggle my feet, look."

Four soldiers watched in dead silence as the prince of Lucis wiggled his feet.

"That's. Very impressive," Drautos said.

"I demand to speak with your superior," Ardyn said. 

"You're speaking to him," Drautos said, in a vague, faraway voice. "He's on the comms."

"I have no idea what that means," Ardyn snapped.

"It's like a spy thing," Noct said. "You know phones? It's a phone, but in your ear."

"Oh, my, that sounds terribly uncomfortable."

"Sir?" one of the soldiers said, in a strangled tone.

"It's really cool! I stole one from Uncle Cor once, and I played recorder on it and everyone on the Glaives said I did a really good job but they had to turn off the whole system for like an hour, and I got grounded and couldn't see Iggy--"

" _Sir?_ " another soldier squeaked.

"The situation may have evolved," Drautos said, and looked Ardyn up and down. "You're willing to remain for questioning?"

"I doubt I have much of a choice," Ardyn said.

"Hey," Noct said, tightening his grip on Ardyn's neck. "He didn't do anything wrong."

"Uh, Noct," Drautos said, inching closer. "Maybe you'd better come with us anyw--"

"If you're gonna question anyone, do it to the guy who chained him up in there," Noct said. Ardyn took a small pleasure in watching the soldiers share a collective wince. "It was _so bad,_ Uncle Drautos. He had hooks in his hands and he didn't have any clothes on--"

The soldiers turned to Ardyn.

"I was, in fact, wearing pants," Ardyn assured them.

"And whoever put him there made him miss his _wedding_ and he doesn't even know what..." Noct pressed the heel of his hand to his right eye, and his face twisted up, cheeks burning red. "He doesn't even know what _soda_ is, and he hasn't read a book in forever and..."

"Oh, no," Ardyn and Drautos said. Drautos glanced up as Ardyn pulled the poor boy's head on his shoulder, letting him cry it out.

"It's alright," Ardyn said. "I'm learning plenty about the world right now, aren't I? You've been a very good teacher."

"It was so dark in there," Noct whispered. "Was it always so dark?"

Ardyn thought about the rare, painful moments of lucidity between nightmares, when he'd howl and thrash against his chains, cursing the cold, the dark, his brother's mournful, miserable face as he'd ordered the cave door sealed shut.

"Sometimes," he said, in a soft voice, "I could see the stars."

Drautos lifted the hood of his uniform, revealing a young man with the look of an islander, his long hair falling in a thick braid over one shoulder. "Your majesty," he said, touching his ear.

"Yes?" Ardyn said, without thinking.

There was a short, pregnant pause.

"Regis," Drautos said. "Think you can get that friend of yours to drive a little _faster?_ "

There was no getting around it, Ardyn supposed. Noctis had the misfortune of being born into Somnus' bloodline after all, which meant his royal guard had a very... limited knowledge of the past. When Ardyn didn't spit fire or turn into a beast at the first sign of hostility, they were left at a loss, and Noct wasn't about to let Ardyn out of his sight. They all took over a small dining establishment across the road while they waited for the king to arrive, where Noct was placed in a new wheelchair and given far too many potatoes while Ardyn and Drautos sat on opposite sides of a glossy booth, staring at each other.

"So," Ardyn said, hands folded on the table. "Noct says you're from Galahd."

Drautos picked up a fry from Noct's basket. It was a remarkable thing, watching a man try to eat a fried potato in an intimidating fashion. Ardyn leaned back on the bench, knocking his feet against Drautos' polished boots.

"Uncle Drautos says they have whales in Galahd," Noct said. He was drawing a monster on his paper mat, brow furrowed. "He says they have a whole song about them."

"Really?" Ardyn raised his brows. Drautos blushed easily for a man in service to the crown, with patches of red standing out at his neck and cheeks. "Does he sing it to you?"

He got the impression, as Noct set down his wax pencil, that the other soldiers in the diner were holding their breaths.

"Not anymore," Noct said. "He's busy all the time. Like Dad. We used to go fishing and everything, too."

Drautos' cheeks flushed darker still. "I may have some time this..." He looked over his shoulder.

"I can train the recruits on Thursday, sir," a soldier said.

"My Thursday morning's free," Drautos managed.

"Good. You and me can take Ardyn to the pond," Noct said, scribbling a gaping maw for his monster. 

"Perhaps you can teach me about whales," Ardyn said, smiling faintly.

Something hissed nearby, like steam escaping a broken kettle, and Drautos leapt to his feet. "Thank the gods," he whispered. "Regis is coming. Look sharp."

Ardyn stayed where he was. Next to him, Noct sat up and looked out the window, wiping his hand on the glass. "Dad!" he cried, as a black vehicle screeched into the parking lot, smoke billowing from the grille in the front. It looked... less whole than the other vehicles Noct had pointed out to Ardyn on their trek the day before, and the glass windows were cracked and broken. One shattered completely when a lanky, dark-haired man stepped out of the driver's seat, staggering in the dirt.

"That's my dad," Noct said, tapping on the window. "Lift me up! Lift me up!"

"I'll do it," Drautos said, but Ardyn was already hoisting Noct in his arms. They walked slowly out of the diner, flanked by guards, and Noct was hardly strapped into his wheelchair before he was off, pushing himself down the ramp and into the lot.

At his side, one of the soldiers grabbed Ardyn by the bicep.

"Oh, dear," he breathed.

"Dad!" Noct squeaked as his father wrapped him in a tight embrace. King Regis' hands were trembling--Of course. The last he'd seen Noctis, the poor boy had been tossed out to sea. Any father would have been terrified.

Ardyn thought of lying with his head in Aera's lap, mapping out their nursery, and his mouth twisted in a grimace. Regis caught his eye, and he gently wheeled Noct behind him.

"Dad," Noct said. "This is Ardyn."

"Surely you don't need the rest of my name," Ardyn said, with a bow that was just a _mite_ too low for civility. Regis scowled.

"Sir." Drautos stepped forward, placing a hand on Ardyn's chest. Both Ardyn and Regis looked at him in alarm, and Drautos took a long, steadying breath. "Your majesty, you gave your word."

"Well," Regis said. "I suppose I did." He inclined his head to Ardyn, his hand clenched tight in a fist at his side. "If you would be so kind as to join me for a drink," he said. "I believe we have much to discuss."

"Yes, your majesty," Ardyn said. "I believe we do."


	4. Chapter 4

The Mother of Pearl, unbeknownst to Ardyn and Noctis the day before, had a private dining room set to the side of the main seating area, which proved to be perfect for a king, his son, his immortal great uncle, and a good dozen or so highly-alarmed soldiers. Ardyn sat in the middle of them all, head bowed, while a member of the restaurant waitstaff dropped a plate of cheese and grapes on the table and ran for the door.

"He likes to pray before dinner," Noctis whispered loudly, and Ardyn hid his smile behind his hair. 

Regis poured himself a second glass of wine. "I see that, Noctis."

Noct had insisted on coming along, throwing a full-on silent, sulking fit when Regis' bodyguard, Clarus, suggested taking him to Insomnia. Since a royal fit involved not just tucking his head in his chest and glaring at the world at large, but _also_ a small bubble of magic that hissed and spat lightning at anyone who came close, Noct was reluctantly allowed to accompany Regis on the understanding that he would be grounded for life as soon as it was over. He was still in his pajamas, and was cheerily ripping a roll to pieces while his father tried to eviscerate Ardyn with his eyes alone.

"Let's compare notes," Ardyn said, pouring himself a bottle of wine that was at least ten times younger than he was. "You are the... Hundred and thirteenth of your line?"

"And you're the Adagium," Regis said, with a wary glance at Noct.

"Please," Ardyn said. "Call me Ardyn. Renaming a man is an old tactic my brother employed. It was hard for his soldiers to kill those infected with the plague," he said, gesturing to Regis with the glass, "if they recognized them as people. So he gave them a new name. Legion, in your tongue."

"Practical of him," Regis said. "If cold."

"He said it was necessary." Ardyn set down his drink. "We never did see eye-to-eye. I saw people in need of a cure. He saw a scourge to be eradicated."

"He must have changed his mind," Regis said. "In his old writings, he spoke of the inflicted as victims of the gods' war."

"Did he? Perhaps a coeurl _can_ change his spots," Ardyn said. "And Somnus said nothing of his dear older brother, I presume? The healer?"

For all that Regis and Noct looked nothing alike, they both made the same expression when bewildered. "Somnus _was_ a healer," Regis said. 

Ardyn snorted.

"Wait," Noct said. "Somnus? I know about Somnus. They made us do paper dolls of him in school. Dad, show him the doll I made."

Regis looked from Noct to Ardyn, mouth open.

"Please," Ardyn said, propping his chin on his hands. "This I _must_ see."

Regis slowly pulled out his phone.

"I got in trouble for giving him a beard," Noct whispered.

" _Did_ you?" Ardyn said, delighted. "Oh, but that's just artistic expression." He held out his hands, and Regis slowly lowered his phone into them. Ardyn peered down at the scribbled, bearded suit of armor meant to be his brother and beamed. "Why Noct, I do believe you have a future in the arts, if this veterinarian business doesn't pan out. It's a perfect likeness."

"Thanks!" Noct said.

Regis snatched the phone out of Ardyn's hands and leaned forward. "Now this, I don't understand," he whispered. His shoulder was dangerously close to the wine, and Ardyn discreetly moved the bottle out of harm's way. "You claim to have healed Noct."

"To an extent," Ardyn said. "Your elbow is in the cheese wheel, by the by."

"The Adagium is supposed to be a monster," Regis said. "A daemon."

"And I'm sure your historical records are all stunningly accurate," Ardyn said, lowering his voice. "No biases whatsoever. My betrothed, Aera--you'd know her as the Oracle, though I doubt Somnus left in the part where he ran his sword down her spine and she died in my _arms_ \--she was a sometime historian in her own right. You'd be amazed what conflicting accounts she managed to dig up."

Regis sat back, his arm oozing with cheese. "Aera? The first oracle?"

"Yes, did I--"

"But she didn't die," Regis said. "At least, not violently. It's said that she was injured early in life, yes, but she died of old age after founding Tenebrae."

Ardyn laughed, raising his wine glass to his lips. "I'm a healer, your majesty. I know when a person is beyond saving."

"Did she have her daughter by then?" Regis asked. "She couldn't have died without passing on the line. The current oracle is, oh, I believe the thirtieth. You can trace the birth records directly--ah--" He lurched forward as the wine glass dropped from Ardyn's hands, but all he did was slosh expensive red all over the dining table. Noct looked up from the phone he was playing with and set it aside.

"Ardyn?" he asked. 

"It has to be a lie," Ardyn rasped. "I couldn't... I held her in my arms..."

"Dad? Dad, what'd you say?"

"There was an official portrait," Regis said. "They say it was a virgin birth, she had her shortly after Somnus was crowned--"

Again, Regis, hands appeared, holding a phone with a small picture on the screen. Ardyn took it and raised it against the light.

Aera Fleuret stood against a grey and blue background, smiling faintly. Her hair was longer, and her left arm hung limp, but there was a dark-haired girl on her lap, a girl with a familiar smile and her father's jaw--

"What's wrong with his face?" Noct whispered.

"Godsdamn it, Clarus, now is not the time." There was a hand on Ardyn's shoulder, a hand with a twisted black signet ring that glowed with a dull blue light, and Regis was there, covered in cheese and wine, a cloth in his hand.

"I suppose it wasn't a virgin birth after all," Regis said, pressing the cloth to Ardyn's cheek. It came away smudged with black. 

"No," Ardyn said. He let the phone drop to his lap. "No, it wasn't."

 

\---

 

"I _told_ you he was nice!"

Noct sat on the deck of a massive white motorboat, coated in sunscreen and covered by a floppy straw hat that drooped over his eyes. The boat in question had passed Angelgard an hour ago, and the captain had opened a cooler to reveal a stash of frozen juice on a stick, which Noct was currently trying to drip all over Eos, judging by the state of his hands.

Drautos shrugged at Noct. "Yes, you did."

"No one ever believes me," Noct said. 

"A mistake they're not liable to repeat," Ardyn said. He smiled at Drautos from under his own enormous sun hat, and Drautos quickly glanced away. 

"I can't believe Luna's your granddaughter, though," Noct said. "Does that mean we're cousins? Me and Luna?"

"Only in theory," Ardyn said. "Unless your line joined at some point in the past two thousand years?" 

"They... did," Drautos said, and coughed into his fist. "His fourth-great grandfather was an Oracle."

"That's... Hm." Ardyn frowned. "I'm not sure if that still counts. My own parents were distant cousins, after all."

"Ew."

"That's nobility, Noct."

"Nobility's gross," Noct said, dropping a piece of popsicle on his front. Drautos barely suppressed a laugh. 

"Truer words were never spoken," Ardyn said, and handed Noct a cloth to wipe off his hands. Noct ignored it entirely in favor of covering his shirt in half-frozen juice. 

Regis was still pacing the deck. The poor man was a mess of nerves--perhaps it was a curse of the bloodline. He'd convinced his bodyguard to take Ardyn on a desperate jaunt to Tenebrae, but he couldn't seem to sit still enough for his thoughts to settle. Ardyn pushed himself to his feet and intercepted Regis on his third lap of the deck.

"Sit," Ardyn said. 

Regis sat. Oh, dear. Ardyn lowered himself to the deck after him and patted him gently on the back.

"It's been a hellish few months," Regis said, in a hoarse voice. "First Noct nearly dies. Then the gods... intervene. Then I lose my son again, and I find that the gods may be incorrect, and my right to the throne may be in question--"

"Imagine being chained to a rock by your brother and waking up to find you missed the invention of _cars,_ " Ardyn said. "Not to mention your own child's birth, but that's oh, two thousand years of water under the bridge." Regis gave him a haunted look. "Too soon?"

Regis laughed, but it was a hollow one, the kind of low, broken laugh Somnus used to make when the first signs of the plague started to appear in the outlands. Then, Ardyn had been too busy to see the signs, and had left Somnus to his guards for what little comfort they could offer.

Now, Ardyn slung his arm over his nephew's shoulder. 

"Come now," Ardyn said. "It isn't as bleak as all that. The sun's out, for one, and your son is safe and covered in sugar. There's always some good to be found in the world."

Regis laughed again, and Ardyn crossed his legs at the ankles, tilting up his enormous sun hat.

"Now," he said. "Why don't we set aside the existential uncertainties, and you catch me up with the world's modern marvels? Let's start with this thing you call a phone."


	5. Chapter 5

"And this," Noctis said, spreading his arms wide like a magician before an audience of thousands, "is a baby chocobo."

"Noctis." Regis Lucis Caelum, dressed in a floral shirt, shorts, and large, conspicuous glasses, tipped the brim of his commemorative visor. "I'm sure Ardyn knows what a chocobo is."

"But this is a _modern_ chocobo," Noct said. "Modern means cool."

Ardyn nodded sagely, holding a round, burbling chocobo in his arms. It made a soft _hlork_ sound and bobbed its neck, and Ardyn scratched it behind its crest feathers.

Altissia, Regis had explained, as they all clambered out of what Noct was starting to call the royal ship, was a necessary stop between Lucis and Tenebrae. It was certainly larger than the small collection of fishing villages that had been there in Ardyn's time, and it was a jolt to be out in a crowd, with no boarded-up doorways marked for the plague, no curfews, no heavily-manned siege towers or lookout posts. There were spices on the air that Ardyn had never smelled before, new flowers, new clothing styles, even narrow boats that used former aqueducts to get around. 

With all that chaos at his door, it was almost a relief to be lectured on the habits of a chocobo.

"The train will be ready in the morning," said Clarus Amicitia, the grim, balding bodyguard to the king. Amicitia was another name Ardyn knew, and not all too kindly--He could still feel the heat of Gilgamesh Amicitia's blade slicing through his chest. At least this one didn't have the mustache. 

"Since we're here," Noct said, as Regis and Clarus bent to have a brief, whispered discussion, "we should do what Luna said and have a painter do a picture of us. It'll be like the family paintings at home, but not boring, because we can ask them to put unicorns or moogles or chocobos in. What do you think, Dad?" Noct asked. 

"Sorry?" Regis looked up, and Noct fell silent, fiddling with his shirt.

"Nevermind," he said.

"I think a family portrait would be a wonderful idea," Ardyn said, fixing Regis with a firm, toothy smile. "Don't you think?"

"And maybe..." Drautos cleared his throat as the king, his bodyguard, and a formerly eldritch monster turned to stare. "There's a fishing dock behind the Leville. Pretty secure, and you can see the fireworks from the balcony."

"You're the best, Uncle Drautos," Noct said. He looked at his father, twisting the hem of his shirt in both hands. "Can we? I know you're busy... But..."

"I can go," Drautos said.

"No." Regis' face was flushed, and he tugged at the collar of his shirt. "No, I'd love to go fishing with you, Noct. You'll have to show me the ropes, I'm afraid."

"There aren't any ropes, but okay."

They did stop for a portrait, though. A proper one, which resulted in several glossy photos that Ardyn spent the better part of the evening examining while Noct and Regis tried to catch him up with the Nox Fleurets.

"Silver's queen," Noct said, rubbing off his sunscreen in the luxurious living room of their Leville suites. "Luna is princess, and Ravus is a nerd."

"Noct," Regis warned.

"He is. I wrote him a letter and all he did was leave a note on Luna's."

Regis sighed. His knee was in a padded cloth brace, and Ardyn itched to lay his hands on it, but he wasn't sure he could call on his power the same as before. He could feel it under the surface, but there seemed to be a barrier between it and his hands, thick and impenetrable. 

"Sylva Nox Fleuret is queen," Regis said. "She is the current oracle, and spends most of spring and fall on the move, healing her people."

"On her own?" Ardyn sat up. He could still feel the pain of a healing, the black tinge to his blood that remained afterward, the surges of darkness at the edge of his awareness. 

"She has a small guard," Regis said. "Her wife used to be part of it, but she stays in the manor these days. Teresa Nox Fleuret. They should both be in residence when we arrive."

"Oh," Ardyn said. 

"Don't be weird about it," Noct warned. He leaned on his father's arm. "There's nothing wrong with being gay. Lots of people are gay. Uncle Cor's gay."

Cor Leonis, one of Regis' bodyguards, spat out his drink from his seat at the open balcony, and Drautos hit his back with a palm.

"I'm afraid my vocabulary is limited in this regard," Ardyn said.

"He's worried that you might be judgmental of them for marrying someone of the same gender," Regis said.

"Ah. No, that's... Is that a problem?" Ardyn asked. "It certainly wasn't in _my_ day. We didn't even have a word for it." 

"Good," Noct said. Cor continued to cough, staggering out of the balcony and into the kitchen for more water. Ardyn caught his eye--He was a quiet young man, from what Ardyn had seen of him that day, but built like a fighter--and Cor muttered a curse and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Uncle Cor, are you okay?" Noct asked. "Did you not want me to say it?"

"Noct," Regis said.

"What?"

"You're fine, kid," came a strangled voice from the kitchen.

"Cor's the best fighter ever," Noct whispered to Ardyn, settling back down on the couch. "He even went into a cave and beat up Gilgamesh."

Ardyn was grateful that in this case, he was _not_ the one holding a drink. "Pardon?"

"Gilgamesh," Noct said. "Don't you know? I made a paper doll of him, too. He had white hair and a huge sword, and Uncle Cor cut off his arm and got grounded by Dad for like ten million years."

Ardyn sat up. "Really? Tell me more."

"Don't," came Cor's voice from a distance. 

"Bedtime, Noct," Regis said. Noct groaned and flopped on his belly, but Regis just picked him up like a wriggly, misshapen suitcase and carted him off to his bedroom.

Cor never did come back from the kitchen. By the time morning had dawned, Cor, Clarus, and Drautos were downstairs, dressed in their smart black uniforms and holding paper cups with dark, oddly-scented tea. The only thing Ardyn could think of was that Cor had escaped out the window.

"Got you coffee," Cor said, when Regis came through the elevator with Noct. Regis took a cup gratefully, and Ardyn started with alarm when Drautos offered him one as well. 

It was, in short, the best drink Ardyn had consumed in two thousand years.

"My gods," he said, when the cup was empty and the world started whirring to life, his head buzzing with a jittery, unprecedented restlessness. "You called that coffee?"

"It was just shitty fast food Ebony," Cor said, and Ardyn turned to Regis.

"I must have more of this," he said. Regis slowly looked him up and down.

"Maybe... In a few hours," he said.

"I bet there's a vending machine on the train!" Noct said. The adults in the crowd closed their eyes in silent prayer, and Ardyn waited patiently for someone to explain what a vending machine was. When they didn't, he just took Noct's wheelchair handles instead.

There was indeed a vending machine on the train. There were also windows, which amused Noct for about five minutes before he became exceedingly, mind-numbingly bored, and he latched himself onto Ardyn and demanded stories. Ardyn pieced through his disjointed memory for stories that wouldn't be too violent for a child, gave up, and told Noct about the time he and his brother nearly wrecked their childhood home chasing down a burglar. 

"You were a good team," Noct said, when Ardyn explained how Somnus, using nothing more than Ardyn's chessboard and a rope, managed to knock the robber out a window. "I wish I had a brother like that."

Ardyn's hand stilled where he was petting Noct's hair, and he looked out the window, towards the rolling, lush fields of Tenebrae. "It's odd," he said. "We were, weren't we? I expect we forgot, after a while..."

"I'm kind of sorry he's gone," Noct said, draping an arm over Ardyn's knee. 

Ardyn said nothing, only looked down at the small child falling asleep in his lap, thinking of the boy his brother had been, the boy who had treated Ardyn like a personal hero, who loved him, all those lifetimes ago.

 

\---

 

"Easy," Drautos said.

Ardyn sat in the back of a sleek, powerful rental car, hands clenched on the leather seat, as the engine growled and purred and made the entire machine vibrate gently. Cars, he decided, as the oaks of Tenebrae closed in around them, were possibly mankind's greatest invention. The sheer power they held! The speed! The way they wheeled around corners, so much more efficient and technical than a chocobo-drawn cart! Ardyn would have to find a way to buy one of his own, if he survived the trip to the Nox Fleuret manor.

Regis and Noct were in the forward car, with Clarus and a still deeply recalcitrant Cor, which left Ardyn surrounded by members of Regis' Kingsglaive. They were all rather young, all told, most of them barely over twenty, and two of the youngest kept looking over at Ardyn and whispering to themselves.

"We'll be there any minute," Drautos said. "The Queen has been briefed, but... She hasn't responded. Try not to get your hopes up."

But Ardyn had spent the past few hours strapped to the backseat of a car with nothing but the Scourge and caffeine in his veins, and he doubted any amount of warning would be enough for what waited him at the manor of Tenebrae.

It was a magnificent manor, more of a palace than a noble house, with curved, delicate walls that seemed to be carved out of the mountain itself. Sylleblossoms bloomed by the front drive, a remarkable blue that Aera had never been able to properly create in Ardyn's time, and Ardyn found himself reaching for the handle of the door before the car even rolled to a stop.

It was a perfect home. A wide, expansive home, easily big enough for seven children. Ardyn pushed at the handle, and even though Drautos tried to grasp his collar, Ardyn was gone.

Because there, at the doors to a manor wreathed in ivy and bursting with flowers at every window, standing next to a sturdy woman in a gold crown, was a woman with short blonde hair and an uncertain smile.

"Aera," Ardyn gasped. He fell out of the car, his new boots scuffing the earth as he stepped into the forgiving shade of Tenebrae.

"Ardyn Lucis Caelum," Queen Sylva said, her chin raised, silver dripping from the crown at her brow. "I--"

Sylva was a not a diminutive woman, towering over most of her guards, but Ardyn lifted her off the ground as though she were a small girl in her father's arms. She yelped, gripping his shoulders for balance, as Ardyn spun her in a stumbling circle, and her crown slid listlessly to the side when he finally set her down.

"Gods above." Ardyn cupped Sylva's face in his hands. She had a square chin and a bit of a rounded face, but he could see just enough of Aera in her, just an _echo._ "Look at you," he said. "You're a queen."

"I... Yes." 

"I'm so proud of you," Ardyn said. Sylva's eyes widened, and she glanced over Ardyn's shoulder. "Regis says you've been healing those inflicted with the Starscourge. Does it hurt you?"

"No, no," Sylva said. She raised a hand to Ardyn's--Her skin was soft, a noble's hands. "Though it _is_ exhausting at times."

"It is!" Ardyn kissed her on the forehead. "Gods, you're beautiful. She's beautiful," he called to Regis.

"I always say so," said the brunette in the golden crown. 

"I'm really rather plain," Sylva protested, but Ardyn had caught sight of the young girl and teenaged boy standing at the doorway, staring at their mother being manhandled by a stranger.

"Are they yours?" Ardyn asked. 

"Luna!" Sylva flapped a hand. "Ravus. Come meet your... Your, ah. Your grandfather? I tried to tell them," Sylva added to Ardyn, "but you have to understand that it's all so, so much."

"Very true," Ardyn said. He released Sylva and strode towards Ravus and Luna, hand outstretched. Ravus tentatively took his hand, but Luna just stared, hands over her mouth.

"Ardyn," he said. He bowed to Luna and held out his hand. "It's a pleasure."

Luna carefully placed her palm in his. Unlike her mother, her hands were calloused, hardened with work. She squeezed Ardyn's fingers and raised herself on her tiptoes.

"No one told me any of this," she whispered. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Ardyn admitted, and Luna smiled, just a little. 

"I think I like it better this way," she said. She glanced over her shoulder, and Ardyn spotted a woman there, standing in a black lace dress in the shadows. "I always wanted to meet you. Even before I knew about... About who you are."

"Really? What would make you want to visit a monster in a cave?" Ardyn asked, still bending down. 

Luna thought it over, her thin brows furrowed, and for a moment, she looked the spitting image of Aera at her age. "To see if he's really a monster, I suppose. The stories Gentiana told me were always so sad."

"They're getting better," Ardyn whispered, and Luna smiled. "And I know a little boy who would be just as pleased to meet you as I am. Do you want to say hello?"

He straightened, and Luna looked around him, towards the black cars lining the drive. Prince Noctis was struggling to push his wheelchair over the gravel path, and when he saw Luna watching him, he stopped mid-push and waved.

Luna took Ardyn's hand in hers and waved back.

"Yes," she said, smiling up at him. "I'd be delighted."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many moms die in FFXV that I decided to give Ravus and Luna TWO.


	6. Chapter 6

Luna and Ravus found Ardyn in Noct's guest room the next morning, while Queen Sylva ran her hands over the spine of the sleeping prince. It was a delicate operation, even with magic, and Ardyn was surprised by the way Sylva used her power to strengthen Noct's bones and connect his nerves. Regis was there as well, holding Noct's hand, and when Lunafreya entered the room, he scarcely even gave her a second glance.

"Lunafreya," Ardyn said, in a low voice. "I'm afraid your mother is at work."

"Ravus and I would like to borrow you," Luna said. She was twisting her hands together, and Ardyn saw dirt under her nails, smudges of it on her knees and shoes. "Please."

"But of course," Ardyn said. He stood, making his quiet apologies to the room at large, and ducked through the door and into the hall. Ravus' jaw was set, his teeth grinding together, and he had his hand clenched on the hilt of an ornamental sword hanging from his belt. Luna glanced at him and waved a hand, but Ravus' brow only lowered sullenly.

"If you would come with us to the garden?" Luna asked, a little too brightly.

"Certainly," Ardyn said. Inwardly, he cringed. From his cursory glance the day before, the garden was the sunniest spot in the manor, and he'd found that even with his coat and hat to protect him, it wasn't exactly a pleasant place to linger. Still, he followed Ravus' marching step, and smiled warmly when Luna wove her arm in his.

"Noct talked about you last night," she said, as they passed down the ornate halls. "He already loves you, I think. And my mother said that King Regis was concerned that he was sinking into a pit, as it were, before the boat accident. He barely spoke to anyone. Mother even asked me to write him another letter to try and boost his spirits. But here he is, perfectly happy."

Ardyn raised his brows. He couldn't imagine Noct silent and withdrawn, unwilling to creep out of his shell for more than a cursory word or two.

"I would like to like you as well," Luna said. "I think we could be friends."

"That's very forthright of you," Ardyn said, deeply amused.

"Mother always says it does no good to be dishonest," Luna said. "Which is why, if we are to be friends, I need to tell you the truth."

They stepped into the circle of sylleblossoms at the heart of the private garden. Ravus stood off to the side, drumming his fingers on the pommel of his sword, and Luna dragged Ardyn into the light, her small hands firm in his.

"Ardyn," she said. "Do you know why the light hurts you?"

"Yes." Ardyn had suspected for some time, before Somnus had pushed the darkness out of him. It was only just within his control, simmering under his skin, a lifetime's worth of healing turned sour. 

"What I'm about to say goes against everything my mentor told me," Luna said, and sat down in the blossoms. Ardyn sank with her, sitting back on his heels. "Ravus knows because he's my brother, but you will be the only soul in the world other than us who knows the whole truth. Even the first Oracle didn't know."

"And if you turn on her for it," Ravus said, in a voice that shook, "I'm prepared for the worst."

"Oh my," Ardyn said. "This _is_ serious."

"Ardyn," Luna said. She took a short breath. "Grandfather. There's a reason that your magic is different from ours. We cure the Scourge--And you do too, of course--but you also take it into yourself. That shouldn't have happened. No one else in our line could do it."

She reached out to him, laying a hand on his knee. 

"It wasn't by chance," she said.

Then she opened her mouth, and the last, desperate pillar of Ardyn's faith in the gods shattered.

Blackness spotted the sylleblossoms at his feet, and a wind bent their stalks, whirling around the garden walls.

"Haven't I sacrificed enough?" Ardyn asked. He dug his fingers in the earth, and his voice came out broken, cracking. "Have I not already given myself? My love, my _daughter,_ the light of the _sun--_ "

Out of the corner of his eye, Ravus drew his sword.

"Ardyn." Luna inched forward on her knees, hands out. "I only tell you this so you know why I--"

"They ask me to aid in the slaughter of a _child?_ " 

The wind picked up, whistling in his ears. Something lashed at the flowers to his right, leaving a scar in the garden, jagged as a lightning strike.

"Ardyn!" Luna's voice came from a great distance. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. Ardyn had been cursed from birth, doomed to be the monster in another's story.

" _Ardyn!_ I can _heal_ you!"

Hands pressed Ardyn's chest, and he looked up into the eyes of a young woman with his own dark hair and twist to her mouth.

"Father," she said. Light bloomed from her fingertips, sinking into Ardyn's skin, and for a moment, all Ardyn knew was the blazing pain of magical fire searing through his skin. Then it was gone, and so was the girl, leaving just a small, terrified Luna kneeling in the rotting ruin of her garden, light fading around her.

"No one needs to die for you to be free," she said, and a tear rolled down her chin. "It'll take longer. The Scourge won't disappear all at once. But we're human, and we should have a right to decide--"

Ardyn gathered her up in his arms, and Luna let out a soft gasp, hands curling between them.

"Brave girl," he said, and Luna sucked in a harsh, shivery breath. "The gods don't deserve you."

Luna gulped in another breath, but it sounded more like a choking sob, and she pressed her forehead to Ardyn's shoulder. "I never said it all out loud before," she said. "But I... But I was with Noctis, last night, and we were playing p-piano, and I thought, gods, I thought if he died, I'd just--"

"Luna." Ravus rocked forward on his heels, hand still on his sword, as Luna wept into Ardyn's scarf.

"It's alright," Ardyn said, stroking Luna's hair. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have scared you."

"You didn't even meet your daughter," Luna sobbed. Ardyn looked at Ravus, who hurriedly dropped his sword and rushed to Luna's side.

"Come, Luna," he said. His face softened when he spoke to her, no longer that of a boy trying too hard to seem like a man, and he pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Don't cry. You know you always come out on top. It's infuriating."

"Oh, hush," Luna said, laughing wetly.

"There's my favorite sister," Ravus said, and brushed a tear from her eye with a thumb. 

It took some time for Luna to be even halfway presentable, but her mother, after exclaiming at her red face and dirty dress, agreed to let her in to see the queen. Sylva was resting in her parlor after her healing session with Noctis, and sat up with a jerk as Luna, Ravus, and Ardyn stepped into the room.

"Luna," she said, brushing wrinkles out of her gown. "Have you been crying?"

Luna's ears flushed pink.

"I believe Lunafreya has a proposition to make," Ardyn said. He bowed, extending an arm like a herald, and Luna giggled nervously. She looked to her mother, cleared her throat, and pressed her fingers to the red, baggy spots under her eyes.

"Mother," she said. "How would you like Grandpa Ardyn to stay with us forever?"

 

To say that the overturning of a prophecy took some convincing was a bit of an understatement. The manor of the Fleurets was thrown into a polite uproar as ancient texts were pulled, tests were done, and a shaking Luna summoned her divine messengers and made a case for Ardyn's slow, painful healing to the powers behind the throne. 

Noctis found the whole affair ridiculous.

"Of course you'll be healed," he said, playing chess with Ardyn in the queen's sitting room. "If you're sick, you need a doctor. Just like me."

That, as Regis put it, turned out to be a hard argument to counter.

"Weird shit," Drautos said one morning, after Ardyn stumbled out from a healing with a splitting headache and a lance of pain in his side. He helped Ardyn walk to a bench under a shady alcove and summoned a bottle shaped like an octopus hugging a ship.

"Galahd's finest cold-brew," he said, passing it to Ardyn. "For shit situations."

"Why Drautos," Ardyn said, placing a hand on his chest. "You do care."

"Gods sakes," Drautos said. "Call me Titus."

"I will," Ardyn said, twisting off the cap. "Eventually."

Drautos sighed.

Noct delivered the verdict a few minutes later, swinging himself along by new arm braces. "Ardyn!" he shouted. "Uncle Ardyn!"

Ardyn froze in the act of lifting the bottle to his lips, and Drautos hid a smile behind his fist. 

"Luna and Ravus are gonna live in Insomnia!" Noct cried. "We're gonna go to school together, and Luna's gonna live in the Citadel, and I can show her where the feral cats live and you can stay in the residential wing with _us_!" He stopped to take a breath, and looked at Ardyn warily. "You will live with us, right? I mean, you want to?"

Ardyn lowered the bottle and passed it to Titus. "Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh. Great!" Noct wiggled on his braces. "If you see Cor, don't tell him where I went, okay?" 

Ardyn nodded, and Noct swung off, disappearing around the corner. After a minute, Cor came skidding into view, breathing hard, his collar undone.

"Noctis," he panted. "Please." Ardyn shrugged helplessly.

"Headed that way," Titus said.

"Thank the gods," Cor said, and went stumbling round the corner.

"Spoilsport," Ardyn whispered, and Titus laughed, slapping a hand on Ardyn's shoulder.

"And you're going to make my job five times worse," he said, and took a swig from the bottle. "But I guess I'll live."

They left Tenebrae at the end of the month, with two more passengers filing into the line of black cars than they'd originally planned for. Teresa gave Ardyn a spiced cake for the road, and Sylva passed him copies of her meticulously recorded family albums, with prints from portraits dating back to Aera's time. There were little notes next to each painting and photo, all written in Sylva's neat handwriting, and Ardyn accepted the albums with the kind of care normally afforded to infants and delicate machinery. 

When he entered his own car, Ardyn found Regis and Noctis waiting for him, nestled together in the backseat with a chocobo-patterned blanket over their legs.

"Come on, Uncle Ardyn," Noct said, and extended his hand. "Let's go home."

Ardyn folded himself into the car. He took Noct's hand, and exchanged a small smile with Regis. 

"Very well, dear nephew," Ardyn said. "You lead the way."

 

\---

 

The years had been kind to the royal manor of Tenebrae. Bees hummed in the blossoms of its gardens, sunlight dappled the carved walls, and a flurry of activity was taking place under the trees, with flapping picnic blankets and scurrying staff and dogs prancing about underfoot. 

And up above it all, in a small shrine built into the cliff, Ardyn Lucis Caelum braced himself on the wall.

He hadn't been so easily winded before, of course. Then again, over the years, he'd found that with Lunafreya's healing touch came a plethora of tiny aches, pains, and annoyances that seemed to multiply by the day. Noctis, who had to wear a knee brace himself these days, said that just proved he was alive. Ardyn supposed he couldn't complain.

Ardyn sighed heavily, pushed himself through the doorway, and sat down on the small, worn bench at the head of the shrine. It was too small for him, really, and it made his knees jut up to his chest, so he slid to the floor instead, legs crossed beneath him.

"Good morning, love," he said.

The portrait of Aera smiled down at him. There were lines at her eyes and mouth, and her hair was greying at the temples, but it was still the same smile as always. He'd known it since they were children, peeking through the latticed fence between their summer homes. He'd traced it with his fingers in their rare, lazy moments alone, felt it curve under his lips as she stood on her toes to kiss him. 

"It's been some time since I've seen you," he said. "The dreams don't come so swiftly these days. But I know that's all they are. I don't need to hold onto a vision of you to find some light in the world. I know you won't mind."

He bent to light a stick of incense in the holder under her portrait. "Sylva is well," he said. "Stubborn as always, of course. She takes me to healings, sometimes, lets me play nurse while she does her work. You would be proud of Ravus. The first king in centuries. A bit spoiled, perhaps, but I admit I may have had a hand in that."

Smoke curled under the frame, twisting in the dull sunlight.

"Luna has her own Queensguard after all, working in the provinces. Noctis is taking to kingship like a cat to water, but he'll do well in the end. Regis can finally have a vacation, one day. And the little ones? Well..."

Outside, birds chattered in the bushes, rustling the leaves. Doors in the manor slammed open, and there was a shriek of laughter, high and breathless.

"We'll have seven," he said. Footsteps pattered up the path to the shrine, short and stumbling. "Two is trouble."

"Papa!" a voice called. Young, lightly accented, with the slight drawl of her father. "Papa, is that you up there?"

"Four is unlucky."

"Wait! Callie, wait for me!" There was a clattering of gravel, and the aggrieved sigh of all older siblings. Ardyn's lips quirked in a smile.

"Eight's too much," he said. A girl appeared at the door to the shrine, her long blonde hair falling about her face in an untidy mess, white lace flapping at her knees. Behind her, a round-faced, panting boy reached for her hand.

"Mum says Uncle Ignis finished making lunch," the girl said. "Dad sent us to fetch you."

Ardyn nodded, and slowly rose to his feet. He looked back at Aera, staring out at him from her simple portrait, and touched the frame. 

"Seven will do," he whispered, and turned to take his grandchildren's hands, stepping out into a bright, sunny morning at the start of spring, smiling in the light of the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Ok, yes, there are technically a great deal more in Ardyn's extended family now, but hopefully he can be forgiven for playing favorites for Aera's sake.)
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you all so, so much for your overwhelming enthusiasm for this fic! Your comments have made my week, to be sure, and I'm so grateful.
> 
> I'm sorry if it seems like I threw Luna/Noct in there at the end. I actually wasn't sure how this was going to go until I realized I wanted it to end just before that one piece of concept art where everyone's having a picnic and Noct and Luna's son is clinging to Ardyn's leg.
> 
> Now to decide if I realllly want to write that Cor/Ardyn/Drautos oneshot that seems to be brewing. Ha ha it never ends.


End file.
